Sweet! Maple Syrup Counterfeiter Busted By Federal Government

We are pleased to report that in the wake of a near societal meltdown, America is officially a safer place to live now that there is one less maple syrup counterfeiter on the streets.

Federal prosecutors say that a Rhode Island man sold and profited from the sale of an impostor brand of Vermont maple syrup on the internet until someone who could distinguish the difference matched his sticky little swindle and had it tested.

According to a statement by the US attorney’s office in Vermont, Bernard Coleman, 50, of Rhode Island, pleaded guilty on Tuesday and has been sentenced to two years probation for “introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead.”

It all started back in 2009, when a Vermont man paid $220.50 in an online auction for what was advertised as pure Vermont maple syrup, according to the report.

When the buyer suspected that the syrup was a fake, it was taken to the Vermont Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection, which tested it in a laboratory and determined that it was actually made of sugar cane.

A federal investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture tracked down the seller and found that he had been purchasing significant amounts of maple flavoring from a store in Rhode Island.

The report states that Coleman confessed to investigators that he was in fact making his own maple syrup at his Rhode Island home out of water, sugar, and maple flavoring.